Valeo Establishes Joint Venture With Furukawa for Wiring Systems - First Contracts Won

PARIS, September 9 -- Valeo today announced the establishment of Valeo Furukawa Wiring Systems, a 50/50 joint venture with Furukawa Electric. The joint venture is headquartered in France with offices in Japan, China and North America and represents the next step in the global alliance between Valeo and Furukawa announced in October 2003.

Valeo Furukawa Wiring Systems benefits from the geographic complementarities of Valeo and Furukawa to better serve its customers in automotive wiring harness systems worldwide. The combined strength of Valeo's leadership position in Europe and Furukawa's strong presence in Asia, notably China, will be a major advantage for customers. The company will directly manage commercial relationships with the customers and design development, whilst manufacturing will be carried out in either Valeo or Furukawa facilities as appropriate.

The new company has already won its first wiring harness contract for a commercial vehicle to be assembled in Europe.

Furukawa Electric is a manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber and cables, photonic products, power cables, nonferrous metals, electronics devices. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Furukawa operates facilities in United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hungary, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Asian countries.

Valeo is an independent industrial Group fully focused on the design, production and sale of components, integrated systems and modules for cars and trucks. Valeo ranks among the world's top automotive suppliers. The Group has 128 plants, 65 R&D centers, 9 distribution centers and employs 68,700 people in 26 countries worldwide (end June 2004).